A documentary about life in Harlem's Latino community by Ed Morales and Laura Rivera, journalists and residents of the neighborhood that since the 1950s has been "the place of ultimate authenticity for Puerto Ricans and other Latinos," and which is currently undergoing real estate speculation.  Mr. Morales is the author, among other things, of Living in Spanglish and "Spanish Harlem on My Mind," an essay for the New York Times, http://www.edmorales.net/.

West Cosgrove is the founder and director of Project Puente, a small non-profit located along the U.S.-Mexican border in El Paso, Texas.  Prior to that he was a Maryknoll Lay Missionary.  For the past 12 years his main work has been to educate people about the reality along our border with Mexico.  West directs week long, educational seminars that bring groups to the border to observe and learn first hand about such topics as NAFTA, the maquiladoras, immigration, etc.  This is his third bicycle tour that has combined long distance touring and giving talks on border issues.  he will talk briefly about immigration (and the economics behind it) and looks forward to discussing with students.  See http://projectpuente.googlepages.com/.

9/25, UJIMA EVENT:  Caribbean Dinner, 7 pm, for more details, click here.

9/26, UJIMA EVENT:  Caribbean Dance Festival, 8 pm, for more details, click here.  Join us as we celebrate Caribbean Awareness Week!  Performaces by the Caribbean Dance Theatre.  Food, activities.

10/19, Dunkerly Dialogue Maya Murals: the Art of Power, 4 pm, Tang Museum

With heather Hurst '97, archaeological artist and illustrator; Stephen D. Houston, Professor of Anthropology and Archeology, Brown University; and Susan Bender, Professor of Anthropology, Skidmore College.

10/28, Photo Exhibition, 6–8pm, Intercultural Center: “¡Estamos Aquí! Saratoga Springs Through the Eyes of Latino Immigrants”

This summer, the Latino Community Advocacy Program organized a photo project for the Latino immigrant population of Saratoga. Using black and white disposable cameras, participants snapped photographs of their lives at the track and around the Saratoga Springs community. The photographers then selected their favorite images to be a part of an exhibition held in August at the Saratoga Racetrack Clubhouse.  On 10/28, Skidmore students and faculty will have the opportunity to see the photographs, meet and talk to the photographers before they leave Saratoga, and learn more about the Latino Community Advocacy Council.  Refreshments will be served.

11/11, Lecture by Prof. Rachel Friedman, Classics Dept., Vassar College, "Derek Walcott's Odyssey and the Postcolonial Recovery of Classical Greek Texts" — Emerson, 5:30 p.m.

Prof. Friedman will examine Derek Walcott's "Stage Version" of the Odyssey, commissioned by the Royal Shakespeare Company and first performed in 1992, specifically Walcott's characterization of Odysseus as a wandering hero extremely ambivalent about his return home to Ithaka. Friedman will consider whether Walcott's reading of Odysseus might be seen as emerging from Homer's poem and will suggest some of the ways such a reading can help us access aspects of the ancient texts from a postcolonial perspective.

MIT professor Junot Diaz' critically acclaimed debut novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction just one month after receiving the National Book Critics Circle Award for best novel of 2007.  This Dominican-American author is widely published; check out his short story Alma in the New Yorker.

OFF CAMPUS

Through 10/13

Latin American and Caribbean Art Selected Highlights from the Collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York State Museum, Albany

NEW YORK STATE WRITER'S INSTITUTE

10/8, Reading/Discussion, 4:15 pm, New York State Writers' Institute, Standish Room, Science Library

Astrid Cabral, leading poet and environmentalist from the Amazonian region of Brazil, and Alexis Levitin, award-winning translater, will discuss Cage (2006; English translation 2008), Cabral's poetry collection about the animals of the Amazon, both real and imaginary.  Cabral is a native of Manaus, the capital city of Amazonas State, and a key figure in the Amazonian cultural identity and recovery movement.  In 1984, she published Portuguese translations of Henry David Thoreau's Civil Disobedience and Walden.  Alexis Levitin, Professor of English at SUNY Plattsburgh, has translated 25 Portuguese literary works into English, including poetry volumes by Eugénio de Andrade, Egito Gonçalves, Carlos de Oliveira, and the story collection Soulstorm by Clarice Lispector.

11/17, Seminar, 4:15 pm, Recital hall, Performing Arts Center

Nilo Cruz, Cuba-born playwright, received the Pulitzer Prize for his 2002 play, "Anna in the Tropics."  Set during the Great Depression, the play tells the story of Cuban immigrants who have come to Florida to work as cigar-makers.  The play made its Broadway debut with Jimmy Smits in the lead role, and received a 2004 Tony nomination for Best Play.  The Miami Herald reviewer said, "The words of Nilo Cruz waft from a stage like a scented breeze, they sparkle and prickle and swirl ...."  Cruz's other plays include "The Beauty of the Father" (2006), "Lorca in a Green Dress" (2003), "Two Sisters and a Piano" (1998), and "Night Train to Bolina" (1995).
Cosponsored by Capital Repertory Theater.  NOTE:  Nilo Cruz's play "Anna in the Tropics" will be performed at Capital Repertory Theatre, 111 North Pearl Street, Albany, October 31 - November 23.  On Monday evening, November 17, Cruz will also speak at a benefit for Capital Rep.  For ticket information call 518-445-7469 or go online at www.capitalrep.org.

CAPITAL REPERTORY THEATRE

10/31-11/23, Anna in the Tropics (by Nilo Cruz)

http://www.capitalrep.org/season/anna.html
Classics on Stage Production
The heat and sensuality of the tropics collide with the passion of Tolstoy's Anna Karenina in this provocative and exciting story from Latin Pulitzer Prize winner Nilo Cruz.  The lives of a group of Cuban-American cigar rollers are forever changed by the arrival of a handsome lector, who reads Tolstoy to the workers as they labor.  Tradition and modernity, myth and morality are tested by the characters against the sweet and powerful influence of one of the world's greatest novels.  (Contains mature subject matter.  There is no smoking in this play.)